PDF/Hatch printing problems

[hollister design Studio]

I just had a pretty serious PDF and Hatch issue arise.

 

I sent a PDF to a contractor.

Everything looked fine but when he printed the file (reduced from 24x36 to 8.5x11) some of the diagonal hatches 'skipped'

           (see screen shot of PDF and photo of printed below)

It seemed like they skipped when there was a dotted line over the hatched object.

This caused confusion ("is this a surface detail? is this a material change?") and lead to an onsite meeting with a frustrated contractor....

 

I tested this and printed the file in office and the hatches skipped on my printer as well.

 

 

Any thoughts on what's going on and how to prevent it in the future?

 

 

Screen shot - everything looks good:

 

Photo of printed copy with skipping hatch - notice the bottom hatch printed fine:

 

 

 

[line-weight]

If you export the pdf at the size you actually want to print it at (so the printer is printing the PDF at 100% scale) does the problem go away?

[hollister design Studio]

@line-weight

 sorry I never got back to this - I am still getting these misprints.

And yes, getting this with no reduction (like in the last post) and printed at 100%.

 

 

Here is a comparison as printed on my in-house printers at full scale:

SC-T3170 printed at 24x36 - Brother printed on 8.5x11 but at 100%

 

Also getting this hatching error from our Blueprint shop printed at 24x36 100% - not sure what machine they are using.

I had one client say that they could not get them printed at all at the local kinkos - probably a separate issue - the blue print shop has had no issues with printing.

 

 

I'm using the Publish command.

 

Here are my settings:

 

 

Thoughts?

[Jeff Prince]

@hollister design Studio Share a file VWX and PDF exhibiting the problem and I'll take a look at it.

[hollister design Studio]

@jeff prince Thanks, I'll see if I can find a smaller file.

If not I'll upload this one.

 

This is the error I get from Acrobat:

 

Not sure if that is at all relevant. 

 

 

[hollister design Studio]

I copied out the geometry into a new document.

• I made a new sheet
• published to letter size pdf
• printed 100% on letter sized and am still having some hatch issues - but not quite as bad.

 

I also found I had some of the "problem hatches" were set with less than 100% opacity.

I set these to 100% and all the hatches printed better but not perfect.

This is the "Hatch Test" sheet on the attached file.

 

 

 

 

THEN I copy/pasted the worst problem viewportfrom the original file into the test file.

This viewport still prints with very wrong hatches - just like main file.

This is the "Hatch Test 2" sheet on the attached file.

 

Hatch test 2 pdf:

 

Hatch test 2 Printed:

 

@jeff prince I've attached the small test file

Hatch test.vwx

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Jeff Prince]

@hollister design Studio did you ever figure this out?

 

I made a PDF from your VWX today and took it to my print shop and everything looks fine.  I use a Mac and the built in PDF driver.  I bet it has something to do with your PDF software.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, finally had a need to go the printer 🙂

 

 

 

[hollister design Studio]

Thanks @jeff prince

 

Odd because I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro - but it does always say that there are errors in the creation of the pdf file.

Maybe vectorworks and adobe don't play well together...

 

Here is the error that pops up with EVERY Vectorworks created PDF (and with no other (ie word, excel, indesign, photoshop, etc.) programs PDFs):

 

Thanks for the test flight!

[Jeff Prince]

2 minutes ago, hollister design Studio said:

Thanks @jeff prince

 

Odd because I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro - but it does always say that there are errors in the creation of the pdf file.

Maybe vectorworks and adobe don't play well together...

 

Here is the error that pops up with EVERY Vectorworks created PDF (and with no other (ie word, excel, indesign, photoshop, etc.) programs PDFs):

 

Thanks for the test flight!

 

The solution probably has you going into Adobe Acrobat Pro and changing some settings.  Back when I used AutoCAD I remember having to spend days configuring Acrobat to make it work.  Simple drawings were never a problem, but multiple objects overlaid and then viewed through a viewport work send Acrobat into a tail spin if the settings were off.  I'm sure it better now, that was a long time ago... but could be related.